The Knight Bus
by Silvaniss
Summary: Five years after the war Draco is living his life as the driver of the Knight Bus. Everything was going perfect or as perfect as can be for a ex death eater until one Harry Potter had to come back into his life and screw it all up.


Once again with this story, okay when i first wrote it I did it on my phone and wow going back and rereading I can freaking tell lol. First things first go back through and fix the tiny errors after that move forward with this because I do have a plan...I think. Who am I kidding gonna end up rewriting this freaking chapter again someone save me!

_**Chapter One**_

_**"Unpleasant Afternoon's "**_

There are many things in life that one Draco Malfoy looked forward to. Of course not as many as when he was a young boy, but a good few none the less. In the words of his trusty conductor they "tickled his fancy" what ever the blood hell that meant. And oh how they did tickle his fancy seeing as how he would indulge in those many things when ever a change would present it's self. Draco being the person that he was would make sure that they presented themselves quiet often.

The blond haired male took at deep calming breath; in through the nose out through the mouth. One for each of the things he silently listed off to himself.

A hot bath, quiet visit to mother, nice glass of fire whiskey. Lets not forget his most favorite and the one that tickled his fancy the most, the newest issue of witch weekly. Thou that last one was never to be spoken aloud, and you wouldn't catch him going to the news stands to pick just any old issue up. No it had to be one that had something of interest to him in it or maybe he should say someone.

But out of everything he listed none of them even came close to the situation he found himself in at this very moment. Awake at noon! Such a thing was unheard of in his line of work, in the last two years Draco had seen many sunsets and more sunrises but he could not recall having the displeasure of being up and about when the sun was at it's highest point.

You might find yourself wondering what on earth could of forced the blond from his bed when not even the most overly charmed alarm clock was capable of such a feat. Only on name can come to mind Pansy Parkison. She had come banging on the door like a landlord after a missed rent, normal Draco would of ignored such things but the women was persistent and wouldn't stop banging until Draco detangled himself from his covers and sheets and about broke his neck going down the ladder to the second floor to answer.

Draco found his eyes wondering over to the calendar on the wall, well that would explain it wouldn't it. Pansy always dropped by on the fifth of every month. The blond found himself wondering why the fifth. Why not every Sunday? That would make things much easier for the blond the buses didn't run on Sundays only on special occasions and if Draco found himself wanting to make some extra cash. The blond found there little meet ups to be boring and tedious, it was always the same. Pansy would be seated before him her lips pulled into a thing line which could only mean she was getting ready for one of the now house hold famous talks.

One couldn't really call it a talk Draco would sit quietly and listen as Pansy droned on about his life and how he should be living it and what he should be doing etc... If he was being honest Draco had almost turned the whole thing into a game, though he was the only one who knew they where playing it. He would see how long he could drag the whole thing about before Pansy would make a face that made her look like a angry pug like back in school.

"Draco..Darling" Pansy's red painted index finger traced the rim of her chipped tea cup.

_'Starting out with pleasantries first Pansy, what a very daring strategy. What do you plan to do lead me into a false since of security then pounce when my guards down? How unfortunate for you my guards never down, the war made me far to paranoid. And as they say Pansy darling old habit die hard'_ though he dreaded what was to come when things truly got heated he couldn't pass up a change to ruffle his friends feather.

_'Best add that to my tinkle my fancy list ruffling feathers'_ Draco shook his head at the thought, well that didn't sound right. He made a mental note never to write any of these things down people would get the wrong idea about him, and oh how people already had plenty of ideas about him.

"Yes Pansy?" the blond quirked an eyebrow.

Pansy wasn't even sure where to start on what was wrong with the person that sat before her, but she would try she would find every single thing that was wrong and fix it if it was the last thing she would ever do. She started at the top checking things off as her eyes roamed as far down as she could see before the table blocked her view.

No longer was his envy invoking platinum blond hair perfect without a strained out of place, but instead it stood up in what one could only call a bed head fashion..( If it was brushed it was just graze the heirs chin) True she had most likely awoken him from his sleep but he had a wand didn't he?! A quick flick and everything would be fixed had the man before her become so lazy and uncaring that he hadn't the strength to lift his own bloody wand and cast a first year grooming charm.

The once pug faced girl had half a mind to pull her own wand and take care of it herself, but she wouldn't if only for her friend. Pulling out her wand without purpose or announcement could send Malfoy flying from his chair knocking over anything and everything in his path before grabbing his own wand from the holster on his calf and turning it on her. In truth Pansy could not guarantee her own safety if such a thing would occur she did not know the extent of what had happen to the blond in the war but she knew enough that it had left scars on his person not just physically but mental to.

The bags under his eyes where proof enough for the girl to know that the outer appearance of uncaring was a lie. They where dark in color with a slight blue tint, a sign of dreamless drought abuse that not many people where aware of. But in her quest to try to out do Granger Pansy had gone a bit over board on a potion essay to just once beat the puffy hair brunettes test score. That potion happen to be one of seven that the test was based on and she had done well with her marks but still had come up short.

A memory of the man before her back in school flashed through her mind, she had worshiped the ground he walked on and now seated before her Pansy could only think how very UnMalfoy the whole thing was.

While Pansy had been eyeing Draco the blond was returning the favor in kind, gone was the fat pug face girl before him now sat a fully grown witch. Her brown hair was pulled into a tight bun showing off her long elegant was dressed smartly in a dark blue pin striped suit which clung to her body nicely showing off a figure that Draco knew she had worked very hard to achieve. She looked ever bit like someone who worked for witch weekly's gossip section and that funny pride feeling welled inside of him.

" The heir to the Malfoy name should not be living in such conditions" she waved her hand dramatically, the bracelets that dawned her wrist jingled as she did so. She spoke the words with such convictions as if it would make all past arguments clear.

" And what conditions should I be living in? The manor? Some high end apartment? Please tell me what is so wrong with where I live" Draco spoke with a teasing tone as if he truly hadn't a clue.

" Well just look around you Draco" she brought her left hand up and put a finger down for everything she named. "Dirty, cramped, small, smells" Draco shifted in his chair, if one could even call it that. It was more of a stool which utilized the side of the black wood burning stove as a makeshift back.

The blond found himself pushing into the warmth that the iron stove held still lingering from the kettle that had been brought to a boil less than ten minutes ago. It was nearing winter, thou it had yet to snow the chill was beginning to set in and it would cost to much to have the whole Knight Bus charmed for the on coming season. Draco had to make a choice and he and Matt would just have to deal with the chill until summer, there comfort came second to those who used the lower floors seeing how they actually payed.

The warmth make Draco mind wondering tuning out Pansy's talking as he recalled the many fights of who would sit on the stool when an actual meal was cooked seeing as the stove would glow red hot. He very rarely lost such fights and calling it a lose was stretching it, only on days when Matt would leave and not return for many hours and when he did he would look worse for wear did the blond "lose". Draco knew where he went though he could not bring himself to say it, one thing the blond had grown to hate about himself was his need to suppress everything from the war to the effects that it still held on himself and his roommate. He would not say it out loud but he feared his own mind and the memories that he fought so hard to keep locked away. It was a reminder of his coward-est how he should not of made it out as close to unscathed as one could from the war.

He had many questions in regards to event leading up to the end of the war but he was to afraid to ask, something inside of him knew it was better not to know. What ever it was his father had been involved with it and it had changed him in a way that Azkaban could not of done. Not only his father but his mother as well was mixed up with it she had also changed she was no longer soft spoken and tried to be the perfect wife. She had taken over the role of head of house she was Draco's biggest supporter and was doing her best to fix the wrong of his family even going as far as to drop the Malfoy name once again being known as a Black.

"Pansy this is my home, due try to show some respected" he had a slight bite in his voice . It had nothing to do with her or what she said. Draco knew that the top floor of the knight bus was nothing to look at it was small and cramped and everything she had said it was. But it was home the first place in as long as he could remember that actually felt like a home, even at the manor when he was growing up he had always felt like a guest and that he was out of place.

"Home you must be joking? This place is not you Draco" she huffed slapping her hand on the table a sneer morphing her pretty face into a ugly sight.

"It's because of him isn't it? The war is over it has been over five years Draco. That boy made his bed and now he must lay in it and dragging you down with him is not something I can sit by and watch happen!" her voice raised and Draco blinked in surprise she had never brought this up but here she sat red face and fuming. She was making that pug face that Draco had wanted to see but now he didn't find it as funny, there where many things that the heir had made clear where off limited. One being what had happened in the war the other being Matt. Draco didn't know what Matt had truly done in the war he knew bits of information mostly from moments where he himself was present but beyond that he didn't know the only thing he did know for fact was that out of all the Death Eaters put to trail Matt was the only one who pleaded guilty.

"I thought my ear where burning now I can see why" pale hands grabbed the lip of the hatch leading to the lower decks and a small figured pulled themselves up and sat perched on the edge legs dangling down and feet knocking the ladder as the owner leaned forwards picking up the take away coffee cup and lighting the fag that had been hanging from his lips.

Draco's face softened in a way that you would have to truly know the blond to notice, the smell of tobacco assaulted his senses bring with it a feeling of safety. His names was Matt Jachound he was a young man who stood at 5'4, with wild unkempt black hair, Draco as a joke once casted a grooming charm on him to see how he would look without his lions mane. It fell to his shoulder. Though Matt didn't have that just out of bed head that Potter wore so well instead on the right day it would reminded Draco of his Aunt, and didn't that just send a chill down his spine.

He was smaller than Draco with a thing wiry build, his eyes appeared larger than normal with a slight sunken look to them. Those eyes had speaks of black flickered within the colored iris like glitter, they stood out strikingly in the pale gray depths. Speaking of his eyes they were currently glaring at Pansy, who Draco didn't need to see her face to know she was returning the favor in kind. Matt usually stayed away when the girl came to visit opting to lurk about town then have a unpleasant run in, the two couldn't be in a room together for more than a few seconds before they where at each other throats. Both wanting blood.

"Pansy don-" the blond couldn't even stop the shit storm that was about to go off.

"Still clinging to Draco I see. Holding him back and ruining his life like always" Pansy hissed cutting off whatever the blond was going to say.

"What can I say Pans we Hufflepuffs love friendship" Matt snapped back leaning forward with a bring it on bitch smirk pulling at his lips.

"How goes the meeting Matt? Would be a shame if you missed one, and got locked back up" Pansy head her head high she had come ready for this fight today she had been hoping for months that she would catch the little bloody puffer so she would rip him a new one.

"Now that-" again Draco was cut off.

" I would love to but you know how I get off on the dementors sucking me. They had to let me out not good punishment and all that." Matt took a drag from his fag and blew a puff of smoke at the girl. He could play this game all day long he was only avoiding the girl for Draco's sake but if she wanted to go who was he to stop her.

Pansy stood suddenly towering over the black haired male a murderous look on her face, a loud buzzing was going off her her ears and she couldn't stop her hands from shaking as one clinched into a fist and the other gripped her wand.

"0602 isn't that your number Matt?" Pansy hisses back. " The number they gave you when they locked your good for nothing ass up! You talk a big game but I know the truth, you act tough and like nothing phases you but I know your scared to go back. Because that attitude is all you have and they strip that away from you and your left with nothing but yourself. And you can't even stomach that!"

"PANSY!" Draco yelled standing his own wand in hand.

" You can't live with it can you?" air rushed in and out of Pansy's nose making her sound like a bull about to charge. "That you didn't do shit in the war and you just want to make it out like your a big boy, but let me tell you this your not a Slytherin and you never will be!" a silents hung in the air it stretched out and wrapped around the three, no one seemed to want to say anything.

Pansy felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned her head to stare at Draco you was giving her an icy glare that was Malfoy trade mark famous. "You need to leave now" he stepped around the girl to say something to his roommate but he was already gone coffee left on the landing abandoned.

"Draco look I'm-" the blond held up a silencing hand.

"You had no right to say that, because you don't know what the bloody hell your even talking about" Pansy opened her mouth like she wanted to say more but quickly closed it, she didn't regret what she had said but feared that if she said anything else she would lose her friend.

Draco sat alone at the table after Pansy had left, Matt had yet to return and the heir wasn't sure when he should expected the other back. Leaning forward he let his forehead bang on the table as he let out a breath he hand't even realized he was holding, reaching out he grabbed the pack of smokes left on the table from earlier. Plucking one from the pack he lit it, setting it in the ashtray and just let it burn while he pressed his cheek into the warn wooden table staring at the room but not really seeing anything.

He desperately wanted to go back to sleep but had already taken a dose of dreamless potion and would have to wait another 7 hours before he could take another. But by then it would be well into time to work so he would have to wait for his shift to end before he could crawl back into bed and pretend this whole stupid afternoon didn't happen. The past 5 years had not gone as smoothly as the blond let other believe, true he had avoid Azkaban along with his mother, but had to sit on house arrest for 2 years. After that he struggled to find a job his past as a death eater scared most people off wanting to hire him. It was by chance that he happened past the old run down Knight Bus that had a for sale sign hanging in the dirt stained window and the rest was as they say history.

Seated on the uncomfortable stool head resting on the table with the smell of tobacco hanging in the air the blond fell asleep.


End file.
